Australian leaders cautiously welcome expected plea that could bring WikiLeaks founder Assange home
The Hindu
Australian leaders welcome expected plea agreement for Julian Assange, hoping to bring him home after years of legal battles.
Australian leaders cautiously welcomed an expected plea agreement that could set free Julian Assange, who was pursued for years over WikiLeaks' publication of a trove of classified documents.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday there was nothing to be gained by keeping the Australian incarcerated.
A plane chartered by Mr. Assange landed on Tuesday in Bangkok as he heads to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific midway between Australia and Japan, where he is expected to appear in a U.S. federal court on Wednesday.
He is expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information, the U.S. Justice Department said in a letter filed in court.
Mr. Assange is expected to return to Australia if a judge accepts the plea agreement.
Public support for Mr. Assange has grown in Australia during the seven years he has spent avoiding extradition to the United States by hiding in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and later during his five years in Belmarsh Prison.
Mr. Albanese has been lobbying since his government was elected in 2022 for the United States to end its prosecution of Assange, and his plight was seen as a test of the prime minister's leverage with President Joe Biden.
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